Monday, December 21, 2009

Happiness is...


...heading home for a white Christmas.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Espresso Truffle Brownies


Adapted from this gluten-free recipe.

  • 1/2 cup dried black beans (this is the same as one 15.5 ounce can of cooked black beans, but this way there's no extra stuff in them, and cooking them with the coffee and vanilla helps them absorb those flavors)
  • 1/4 cup coffee beans, finely ground
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 T coconut oil
  • 1/3 cup cocoa
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 cup diced dates
  • 3/4 cup chocolate chips (the only not-healthy ingredient - I did use organic, but next time I'll make my own)
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Soak beans. (I did the quick soak method: bring to a boil, remove from heat and keep covered for an hour.) Drain beans. Cover with 1 1/2 cups of water, add coffee and vanilla, and bring to boil. Boil gently, partially covered, until beans are tender, adding water if necessary.

While beans are cooking, place dates in small pot, just barely covered with water. Simmer to soften.

Place cooked beans (including juice and coffee grounds - should be about 1 1/2 cups), dates (drained), eggs, and coconut oil in the blender. Puree. (If your blender is struggling, add a bit more coconut oil.) Add cocoa and baking soda and blend until mixed. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Pour batter into greased 8x8 baking pan. Bake at 350 until top is dry and sides begin to pull away from the pan (20-25 minutes).

Brownies will be gooey when they first come out of the oven. This is, of course, not a bad thing, but you won't be able to serve them as a bar. Once they've sat for a day or so they have a fudgie-brownie-meets-truffle consistency and taste even better. My only other tip: don't mention they have black beans in them until people have tasted them. You can't taste the beans, but some folks would be too squeamish to try them.


Lunchbox Cookies


One day I was thinking, we eat celery with peanut butter and raisins, we eat apples with peanut butter - why not combine them all in one yummy good-for-you cookie? So I adapted a recipe I got ages ago from my second favorite mother of seven and called them After School Snack Cookies. That cumbersome handle morphed to Lunchbox Cookies, but they're actually perfect for breakfast on the go.

WARNING: These cookies are hearty and wholesome and not very sweet. If that's a problem, add more honey, call them something other than cookies, or get a recipe somewhere else.

  • ½ c. coconut oil
  • 1 c. honey (use good, raw local honey - the stuff from the grocery store may be cheaper, but it also may not be honey)
  • ½ c. natural peanut butter (this matters!)
  • 1 ½ T vanilla
  • ¾ c. milk
  • 3 c whole grain flour (I use part whole wheat, part oat)
  • 1 ½ t baking soda
  • 2 T ground flax seed
  • 2 ¾ c oats
  • ¼ c sesame seeds (if your sesame seeds are unsalted, you may want to add a pinch or two of salt to the cookie dough)
  • 1 apple, diced
  • 2 stalks celery, diced
  • ¼ c. raisins
Combine coconut oil, honey, peanut butter, vanilla, and milk. If you measure the oil first and then use the same measuring cup for your honey, you'll waste less honey!

In separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and flax seed. Add to wet ingredients. Stir in oats, sesame seeds, apple, celery, and raisins. Let sit for 15 minutes.

Roll into balls, flatten slightly between hands, and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes at 350.

I always give the above disclaimer before serving these cookies. So long as you're not expecting a super-sweet cookie, you'll love them!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Hope Gratitude


So, the whole regular-or-even-daily posting on gratitude leading up to Thanksgiving didn't pan out quite like I expected, but here's a late one to roll us into Advent.

"I suck but there's hope." That's how some friends and I summed up our lives tonight. It's the Gospel in a nutshell - I'm depraved and helpless, but hope is found in the Cross, in the Christ who doesn't just offer something to be hopeful for but becomes our hope.

His kind of hope isn't the wistful thinking we're accustomed to, the I-hope-I-win-the-lottery optimism that knows all along it will be disappointed. His kind of hope is a sure thing, a promise that we wait for while knowing it's already kept. We have hope that we aren't stuck the way we are, hope for redemption, for the resurrection that cannot be unless death comes first.

The curse of Babel in Genesis 11 is followed by the promise of blessing in Genesis 12. The writing on the wall -- that we're mortal, that we don't measure up, that our false hope will crumble in our fists -- is followed by lions shutting their mouths while Daniel prays and a pagan king opening his to praise the living God. And even as God pronounces to Adam and Eve the dreadful consequence of their sin, he is promising to send the only one who can defeat it.

Like their children and their children's children, we rest in and long for the Savior who came and who is coming. "He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found" -- in every corner of the world, in every corner of my heart.